


My Boy Builds Coffins

by seaglassgreen



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: 50 Sentences, Gen, mentions of Rory Vick and Posy Hawthorne
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-27
Updated: 2012-12-27
Packaged: 2017-11-22 15:55:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/611573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seaglassgreen/pseuds/seaglassgreen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fifty sentences of the life of Gale Hawthorne, told in non-chronological order.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Boy Builds Coffins

CROWD  
It's easier to watch the games - both of her games - in a crowd then alone, where he might give in.

LONG  
He's a hunter, tracker, survivor, soldier: patience is the very stuff that makes him up.

HEALTHIER  
"There, see?" Gale says as he strokes Posy's sweat soaked hair, his smile too wide and strained to hide the exhaustion and relief in his eyes, "I told you that you'd get better."

RIG  
All of District 12 is up in flames and everyone is screaming, crying, running, stumbling through the shock... except for Gale, who knew this was coming the day that Peeta and Katniss stepped onto that train again.

SHAVING  
When a stubble first begins to show on his face, he is too proud to ask anyone for the help he wishes his father could be giving him.

WINDOW  
Sometimes, after he gets back from a hunt, he'll lean against the shuttered window and listen to his mother crying - when they're all out of the house is the only time she'll give into it, and a few extra minutes is the least he can give to her.

HATE  
"I had to take the tesserae, you know I did-" but Gale doesn't hear a word coming out of Rory's mouth, he just hears _you failed them, you failed them again, just like you will always fail them._

PAPER  
Vick stares up with big, sad eyes, the stolen paper in his hands now folded into a slightly lopsided and wrinkled flower, "Please don't tell! I just, there's this girl in my class and-" Gale cuts him off there.

SQUARE  
Madge doesn't say anything for a while, but after nearly ten minutes she slips her fingers over his wrist and says in a dry voice, "I guess we're square now, aren't we?"

DRIVE  
His family is everything to him, and there is nothing he won't do for them. 

BUNDLE  
The first time he walks out of the woods, he's shaking, but they need the food he's got in his rucksack, so he grits his teeth and marches right by the Peacekeepers who did not save his father.

BLANK  
His skin is dirty, his clothes are old and worn, his whole frame is too thin and gangling, and yet his face is carefully devoid of any expression as he told her in a voice that only shakes a little, "My name is Gale Hawthorne, today is my twelfth birthday, and I'm here to take out tesserae."

MOROSE  
Almost every day for months, Gale wonders if this tiny, scrawny 'Catnip' girl ever knew how to smile.

CAPABLE  
While he's no tribute, no trained from birth killer, Gale is still a soldier.

TOE  
"Ow! Damnit!" Gale hisses as he nurses his foot, pointedly ignoring Katniss and her barely contained laughter.

BODY  
Every year for as long as Gale can remember, and longer, two more bodies are shipped back from the Capitol, and he's terrified that hers will be another.

SEVENTEEN  
That's when he stops counting and just focuses on not screaming as skin is flayed from his muscles and bone.

MAXIMUM  
The buck is almost too heavy for him to carry and it still doesn't stop him from beaming proudly at Katniss the whole way home.

RIGHT  
"What makes it okay for them to do this?!"

STUMP  
There are no words he can think of, no possible way to fix this wound: it's over now for him, for them.

SOLEMNLY  
His face is grave as he kneels down in front of Posy, tucks some hair behind her ear and tells her, "I promise you, there is no such thing as 'cooties.'"

LIAR  
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

RAIN  
There's only one tradition in the Hawthorne house that Gale tries to uphold over the years: every time it rains, he and his mother brew some tea out of whatever edible leaves they can scrounge up, wrap themselves up in threadbare blankets, and sit in the quiet to watch the rain.

FIST  
The first time he hears a boy whispering about Katniss after she starts showing up on the Capitol screens is also the last; Gale makes sure the message sticks.

SLEEP  
Rory snores and Vick can never stop squirming and Posy is starting to get too big to keep using him as a human pilow, but Gale can't imagine a good night's sleep that doesn't involve piling onto the ratty old mattress with them all there.

PRETTY  
They call her pretty, striking, radiant when she's painted and dressed up for the cameras; Gale thinks she looked better in old leather and dirt and her _real_ smile.

HUMBLY  
The woman's smile is alluring and her voice husky, but he just shakes his head and steps away, "I'm no hero."

SPAR  
Every day he trains, pushing himself to be faster, stronger, better, continuing to fight unitl no one will agree to be his sparring partner anymore.

BRAIN  
Soldier Carth snorts, "Oh, _him?_ He's Beetee's new best friend - the genius' new favorite, because _apparently_ he's some great strategist... for a District boy."

DOUBLY  
Even with twice as many slips as her, more then, really, the odds still end up being in his favor that day... or maybe not.

SLOW  
Normally Gale is exceptionally observant, yet he's the last one to realize that Rory has gotten himself a fiancee.

ACHE  
It hurts to be back in District 12 - even more then it hurt to be away.

SAND  
The first, and last time, Gale sees sand with his own two eyes is when he goes to District 4 for his sister's wedding day.

NOSE  
His face lights up at once, his smile wide and his eyes scrunched up into slip crescents as the baby girl on his lap gurgles happily while he crows, "Got your nose!"

DRIFTING  
In the weeks after the war, Gale doesn't know what to do with himself: make his own, new path, or follow the road of the solider, like everyone wants and expects him to?

MOLLASSES  
The realization comes slowly, his eyes going wide, a quiet " _No_ ," escaping his lips as he tries to wrap his mind around the idea that his best friend is all but promised to die this time.

BEE  
He doesn't take his eyes off the screen as he watches her saw her knife through the thick branch, muttering under his breath, "Come on, come on, come on, you can do this, you can do this, Catnip."

ALWAYS  
Every morning he stares out his bedroom window at the Nut, trying to think his way out of a plan and a mistake he was so sure of all those years ago.

OUT BACK  
"I'll be out in the back," he calls to his mother - the words she knows mean he's going to the woods again.

SUSHI  
The taste of raw fish is disgusting, but so long as he can talk his siblings into eating it, he doesn't care what it tastes like so long as it keeps them alive.

BOX  
None of his possessions survived the bombing, not even enough to fill a box.

GLOVE  
He crams his cold, numb, aching fingers into his pockets, not regretting his choice for a second.

WRITING  
So far he has written two-hundred and thirty seven letters, finished and unfinished; he has yet to send one.

HEROIC  
Pictures of him are in the history books now.

LEGITIMATELY  
Every day in the mines is hell, and he'd give anything to be back in the woods, even if it risks punishment.

RELEASE  
When his fingers release the string of the bow, he can feel a little tension ease from his muscles, too.

BUTTON  
For nearly an hour, Gale searches for the stupid, missing button when he could be sleeping - they just can't afford even that small, extra expense if it's at all avoidable.

BETWEEN  
"Can you keep a secret, Prim?" he asks the small, unlabeled memorial for all the unnamed lost.

SORROW  
He screams and he screams, but she won't shoot him, and it ends up breaking him.

MARCH  
"Keep your chin up, soldier"


End file.
